Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Redskins Nation is a half-hour show devoted to giving fans unfiltered access to the day's events at Redskins Park. Hosted by Larry Michael, the show features Redskins players, coaches and sit-down interviews with team officials. (Show re-airs at 11:30 p.m/7:30 a.m. daily)

Flickr Photos

When the Redskins selected two offensive linemen with the their seventh-round selections in the NFL Draft — on top of fourth-overall selection Trent Williams — I figured fans would be happy. (In fact, I used a headline that was meant to convey exactly that, although the syntax threw more than a few people off.) Here they are, O people: the offensive linemen for whom you have cried out. Repeatedly!

And, for the most part, that was correct. People were happy. There was new offensive line depth. Birds chirped, rainbows bowed, and all was right with the world.

Except… the emails keep trickling in suggesting that being happy about two seventh-round picks is ridiculous. That these guys — Erik Cook and (pictured above) Selvish Capers — are never going to contribute. That Williams is the only guy from the draft who really matters.

The only mainstream media member I’ve seen get in on the act is Rick Snider, the venerable Redskins beat reporter currently with the DC Examiner. The morning after the draft, Snider tweeted:

I wouldn’t get too caught up in #Redskins taking 3 OL. 2 were in 7th. Probably never see the field. Count it as 1 OT in draft.

(To Snider’s credit, he was there well ahead of my emailers. I may not agree with his conclusion, but at least he reached it swiftly.)

Once the number of emails in accord with Snider’s sentiment reached a certain, undefinable critical mass, I figured it was time to just stop vaguely disagreeing and start looking at some numbers. Fortunately, they weren’t too tough to find: I really didn’t have to go much beyond the basic arithmetic of counting last year’s starting lineups.

Here’s how it broke down, and it really isn’t particularly pretty: Read more »

The folks sitting with Donovan McNabb in the picture above are the Duck family, of Gainesville, Virginia. From left to right (and skipping Donovan), that’s Ellen, Isaiah, Charles, and Isaac Duck.

Isaac, who you see here in his black shirt holding a signed football, was diagnosed with lymphoma on New Year’s Day, 2009. He underwent seven rounds of chemotherapy and a major surgery to remove his tumor, and — as his father proudly told me — has now been “nine months cancer-free.” He was the “honored patient” at Monday’s Jason Campbell Leukemia Golf Classic, and Campbell — then still the quarterback of the Washington Redskins — visited Isaac and his family when they were selected to that honor.

And the way Charles Duck talks about that visit should answer any question you might have about if athletes are just phoning it in when they participate in charity events. Read more »